Analysis of current and important events

Myths & Fraud

Normal amounts of arsenic in drinking water is dangerous

No studies have shown this, and in fact have shown that levels higher than the 50ppm the environmentalists are complaining about pose no health risks.

MTBE in gasoline reduces air pollution

No! Since it reduces gas mileage, it causes cars to burn more gasoline than without any so-called oxygenate, thus producing more air pollution per mile driven, and accomplishing nothing but greatly increasing the cost of gasoline and polluting our groundwater and lakes with unburned MTBE. Please read Dr. Wattenburg’s testimony to the State of CA on the subject for some background on the issue.

Nuclear plants release more radiation than any other form of power generation

False! U.S. coal-burning power plants (51% of our energy production) emit over 2,000 tons of radioactive uranium and thorium into the atmosphere every year. This is far more per year than the total radioactivity released by all U.S. nuclear plants, ever. This report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides the details.

Nuclear power plants produce a large volume of radioactive waste

Not even close. The share of the waste generated by a typical family of four over 20 years fits in a shoebox with normal U.S. power plants. And if the plants reprocessed the fuel to reuse it on site, the amount for the same family would fit in a pill bottle. Generating the same amount of energy would require a freight train–full of coal, natural gas, or oil, and would produce hundreds of tons of air pollution when burned—along with radioactive waste in the case of the coal plant’s slag pile.

Radiation is un-natural.

Sorry, but it is completely natural. As this report on natural radioactivity shows, less than 1% of our exposure to radiation is from nuclear power and fallout.

Texas energy companies were responsible for all of the rate gouging in Calif.’s energy crisis

Nope. Publicly owned “municipal” utilities were some of the biggest gougers around.

All scientists agree that “Global Warming” is real and a big problem

Not by a long shot. More than 2,000 scientists have signed the Heidelburg Appeal, and more than 15,000 have signed onto the Petition Project. Both of these dispute the sky-is-falling statements by other scientists and the media, and point out that there is a great amount of uncertainty in the current climate modeling, and that we are not even sure that the small warming measured is not due to natural Earth or Sun cycles.

This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 18:53:41 PDT.

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